As national and international events demonstrate, emergency situations, whether man-made or natural, are inherently chaotic. Regardless of the type of situation (e.g. hurricanes or other severe weather, terrorist attack, fires and explosions), resources necessary for an appropriate and timely response need to be identified, notified and deployed in an efficient and timely manner. For example, as a hurricane approaches a coast, it may be necessary to close roads subject to high water, initiate evacuations of people in dangerous areas and put on standby emergency personnel such as ambulance drivers and hospital workers to deal with injuries, police to route and direct evacuation traffic and utility workers to repair damaged electrical lines or water pipes.
Although advance planning for hypothetical emergencies is often performed, there does not exist, until now, a system that manages the planning, organization, notification of personnel and deployment of resources both before and during an emergency situation. Even the best plans need to be located prior to implementation in order to be effective. This location and implementation of a plan can consume valuable time and, when performed on an ad hoc basis, present a chance of serious omissions and mistakes to occur, including the loss of precious time. In addition, some actions, e.g. the notification of critical personnel, (even if their identification has been performed in advance), typically occurs in a sequential fashion. Thus, there exist many potential sources of error and time loss in current emergency response planning.